A highlight of Lou Reed’s 1989 album New York, “Halloween Parade” is as evocative as it is chilling. Through a processional cast of characters the track chronicles the decade’s AIDS epidemic and the friends Reed lost to it. Subdued, while the wistful narrative works well enough on its own, it is expertly employed as the glue between the LPs “Romeo Had Juliette” and the Dickensian “Dirty Blvd.“ Trick or treat.
MP3: Lou Reed :: Halloween Parade
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Thanks for posting this. Great song from an overall great record. Listening to the album now it’s amazing that “Dirty Blvd” is as relevant now as it was in 1989 – the opening chords always give me a bit of a chill. Same for “Busload of Faith”.
1 | greg October 25th, 2011 at 8:52 amI listen to this song every halloween in New York- its perfect.
2 | Del October 25th, 2011 at 9:11 am[...] article: Lou Reed :: Halloween Parade Tags lou reed « Stereogum x W Hotels Suite Sessions #1: Active Child + Comment [...]
3 | Lou Reed :: Halloween Parade | The Darker Wave October 25th, 2011 at 12:43 pmIt might just be my media player, but the album is showing art from some other mixtape on this download. “Halloween Hits”? There’s a pinup girl on it next to a playlist. I can’t really find the file on my hard drive to see what else is on this collection. Can anyone help?
4 | Danielle October 25th, 2011 at 6:00 pm@Danielle – yup, that’s actually from an old Halloween mixtape this song was featured on.
5 | Satisfied '75 October 25th, 2011 at 6:50 pmI loves me some Lou…..thanks for sharing.
6 | Janet October 26th, 2011 at 7:40 pm